Experts Believe “Bomb” Could have Responsible for Russian Plane Crash

Alexander Neradko, head of Russia’s federal aviation agency, confirmed that the jet disintegrated at high altitude in a remote area where Egypt is fighting ISIS and Al Qaeda-backed terrorists, he refused to comment on the cause of the crash, claiming the investigation was ongoing, but terrorism experts believe that a bomb could have been responsible.

Professor Michael Clarke, Director General of the Royal United Services Institute told BBC Radio Five Live: ‘There’s no sign of a distress call, so the idea that the aircraft was undergoing an mechanical problem, or an engine problem, or a fire, or something like that, you would expect that there would be some sort of distress call beforehand.

‘So the fact that there was a catastrophic failure at 31,000 feet, with the aircraft falling in two pieces, suggests to me an explosion on board. So was this caused by some form of terrible accident, which is unlikely, or a bomb, which is much more likely, my mind is moving in that direction rather than anything that happened on the ground.’

Prof Clarke said the area was in an area with large numbers of terrorist Groups and is not under the full control of the Egyptian government.

He said: ‘But also it is a transit area because there are a great many weapons coming over from Libya, because of the Libyan revolution in 2011. About 600 arms dumps were left open and unguarded. These arms dumps are weapons that Colonol Gaddafi had and those weapons are just moving around the Middle East, so a lot of them end up going through Sinai on their way to Syria and other places.
‘So it is a very difficult area and it is an area in which, I have to say, government writ simply does not run. Despite being in Egyptian territory, the government in Cairo does not have much control about what goes on there.

‘It does look coincidental, but the technical issue is an important one. This aircraft was 200km north of its take-off zone, that means it was flying at around 31,000 feet. Terrorists, as far as we know, don’t have equipment to take down an aircraft at that height. They have shoulder-launched missiles, known as man-portable missiles.

They can get aircraft when they are taking off or landing, when they are going low and slow. But anything above 8,000 or 9,000 feet is out of the range of the weapons that they’ve got.

There is no sign that the terrorist in the Middle East have got hold of any of Russian BUK missile, which are designed as anti-aircraft missiles against military aircraft equipment.

‘So it is very hard to think that this plane was brought down by terrorist action from the ground, on the other hand, early reports said it split into two and that suggests a catastrophic failure, not a mechanical failure, but perhaps an explosion on board, so I would be much more inclined to think, if we have to guess at this stage, it is much more likely to have been a bomb on board than a missile fired from the ground.

Shortly after crash ISIS Affliate in Sinai called “Velayat Sinai” tried to claim responsibility for the plane crash which claimed the lives of some 220 mostly Russian passengers and crew suggesting their action was in response to Russia’s decision to bomb ISIS terrorist fighters in Syria.